Brandeis to host Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships

Feb 25, 2009

WALTHAM, Mass. - The Gosman Athletic Center will play host to
one of the most prestigious events in all of college athletics on
Saturday when the Brandeis fencing team serves as host of the 2009
Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) championships. The meet
begins at 8:30 a.m. and lasts until approximately 5:00 p.m.

An event that dates back to 1894, Brandeis is hosting the
112th edition of the IFA championships. The trophy that
is presented to the winner of the men's foil competition is the
oldest intercollegiate trophy still contested. Among the 12 teams
who will be competing at the IFA championships are four of the top
10 men's and women's squads in the most recent United States
Fencing Coaches Association national poll. The squads from the
University of Pennsylvania (#4 men, #6 women), Columbia University
(#5 men and women), Princeton University (#6 men, #10 women) and
Harvard University (#9 men, #4 women) will be joined by teams from
host Brandeis, Boston College, Brown University, Cornell
University, MIT, New York University, Vassar College and Yale
University.

Columbia earned the 2008 combined championship and the men's
three-weapon title, while Pennsylvania was the women's three-weapon
champion. Individually, the field will contain seven former
champions, including all three defending champions on the women's
side: Jasjit Bhinder of Princeton in the epee, Randy Alevi of Brown
in the saber and two-time defending champion Misha Goldfeder of
Harvard in the foil. The women's foil field also includes 2008
Olympian Emily Cross, who won the event as a sophomore in 2006. On
the men's side, Graham Wicas of Princeton in the epee and Jeff
Spear of Columbia are defending champions, while Kurt Getz of
Columbia was the 2007 titlist in the foil competition.

Brandeis, which won its first-ever IFA trophy in men's epee in
2007, will be well-represented at the championships. The Judges'
top performers include sophomore saber Anna Hanley of Lexington,
Mass., who was recently named the Northeast Fencing Conference
Women's Fencer of the Year, and senior foil Will Friedman of
Newton, Mass., who was the Judges' first All-American on the men's
side since Olympic medalist Tim Morehouse '00 in 2000.

For more information on Brandeis athletics, please visit our web
site at http://www.brandeisjudges.com.